Acceptance
by ajax710vv
Summary: While the rest of AVALANCHE is busy, Vincent Valentine conducts a mission of disappearances from the Lifestream. But his unfortunate fall into the planet's depths actually lead him to a new world...Spira. 7&X Crossover
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

**Hey Guys,**

**This is my first time writing ff, so that's just a heads up to all of you.**

**I'd like to thank mira ff for Beta'ing this story for me. She's a big help!**

**Any reviews/ criticisms or whatever you guys have would be excellent, just send a message or post! **

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**"VINNIE! VIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNIEEEEEEEEEE!" The ninja made spot checks under the tables in the empty 7th Heaven. Cloud and Tifa had gone out to Costa del Sol for a "vacation" away from the kids, and they had left Yuffie in charge of the bar with Vincent.

Hearing his name being shouted in the bar, the tall dark haired man trudged out of the guest room, his blood red cape flowing behind. Cerberus was fastened safely in its holster by his side. _Why is she so annoying? _ "Can I help you, Yuffie?"

She ran over to him, attempting to pull him over to the newscast being broadcast on the television. Instinctively, he pulled his hand away. "Don't touch me."

The teenager wasn't fazed, either used to his disdain for her or just not caring about it. She pushed him towards the TV. "Watch!" They sat down on the couch to watch together; Yuffie trying to inch towards Vincent, him inching away every time he noticed.

"Trouble in Mideel!" exclaimed the newscaster. "It seems that patients seeking help at the newly rebuilt clinic have been disappearing upon arrival. We are awaiting further word from authorities…" The report droned on, but Yuffie was already excited.

"Oh wow! We were there, weren't we? When we saved the world!? Vinnie, surely you remember that! We went to Nibelheim! And Corel! And Gold Saucer! That was a lot of fun! Remember? We did it _together_!"

"Don't call me Vinnie," the dark haired man said. The phone at the bar started ringing, and the young girl ran over to answer it.

"Hello!"

"Yes. Is Cloud there?" Rude's distinctive voice could be heard with difficulty behind roars of machinery.

"No! He and Tifa are on vacation. I'm housesitting with Vinnie. I mean…_Vincent._" She shot him a look when she said it, but he only looked away. "I'll let you talk to him." She handed the phone to the caped man.

"Yes?"

Laughs were heard on the other end of the line. "Ha! Does she really call you Vinnie? That's hilarious!" He continued when there was no response from Vincent. "Anyway, down to business. Surely you heard of the terrible news in Mideel. There's more to it than they let on. People have been disappearing because they have touched the Lifestream. We figured since Cloud and Tifa went in and got out all right (you could argue that Strife got out better…) that they could help out."

"I'll do it."

"…oh. By yourself?"

"Yes. I'll be there tomorrow." _Click._

Vincent dialed Cid's number. "Yea, Cid? Can I ask you a favor? The Turks need our help again…"

The next morning, the _Shera_ was idling a few feet away from the bar. Cid and Vincent were waving their goodbyes to Shera and Yuffie, the younger obviously displeased.

"Why can't we go too!?" She complained.

"Shush up, Yuffie. Just pray that they make it back all right, okay?" Shera pleaded. She was not looking forward to staying with the girl for however long they would be gone.

"Fine!" The ninja stomped off, pick pocketing material from a man walking by.

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"Do you miss her?" The dark haired man asked the pilot.

"Eh. My woman? At times I do…" Cid trailed off, coughing.

_Huh. I wonder if anyone ever misses me…_ "How long before we get to Mideel?"

"Only a few hours. You can take a nap down below if you want." More coughs.

Vincent took him up on his offer, and woke up a few hours later over Mideel. He looked out his window, and immediately recognized the green liquid below. _People are lost in this? It's going to be tough to get them out…_

Cid landed the ship near the clinic, and the two former members of AVALANCHE emerged together. Reno and Rude greeted them as they neared the tallest building in town. Cid started coughing again, and Rude stopped him from getting closer.

"You aren't going into there," he pointed to the Lifestream, "in the shape you're in. You're coughing up a lung. No way."

"Are you fuckin' serious? You goddam douchebags gotta let me go in…" But Reno grabbed the man and brought him into the clinic.

Rude turned towards Vincent. "Come with me." The two men walked in the direction of the Lifestream. When they arrived, the caped man bent over, inspecting the strange liquid.

"What are you looking at?" The bald man bent down as well.

"I'm trying to see how to get in and out all in one piece…"

"Let me help you with that!" Reno's voice was heard from behind. "I can get you in the Lifestream in one piece!" He slapped Vincent on the back, and the man fell headfirst into the green, disappearing from sight.

"Oops…"

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Rikku's blonde hair shone in the sunshine as she waited for her cousin to catch up. The young Al-Bhed was faster than her friend, never able to walk at the same pace as her.

"Yunie! Do you want to visit Tidus or what?" she called. Rikku knew that this taunt would hurry up the brunette. "We're going to miss our boat!"

The young girl was actually right. The cruise boat S.S. Winnow was just about to depart from Kilika without the cousins on it. Yuna ran as fast as her short legs could carry her, passing her cousin and running all the way to the boat, finally collapsing on a big red folding chair on the deck.

"Look what I found here, Yunie! A blitzball! Too bad Wakka isn't here to play with me…"

_Or him…_ thought Yuna. She could see his face now, his blue eyes sparkling behind his long blonde hair. _I miss him so much. That's why I have to go to Guadosalam, to visit the Farplane. It's the only way to see his face._

While Yuna was deep in thought, Rikku ceased playing with the round blue ball and decided to play a joke on her cousin. Realizing that the former summoner was not paying attention, Rikku grabbed her by her shoulders and half carried half dragged her into the sea.

"RIKKU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Yuna screamed.

A natural swimmer, Rikku couldn't help but laugh at her cousin struggling in the deep blue water. After a few minutes, though, Yuna's cries for help were annoying the young girl, and she brought her to shore.

"Rikku! Why did you do that?" sputtered the brunette, trying to be level headed. She always made sure she never lost her cool, especially when it came to family. But sometimes Rikku's immaturity made her so _mad._

"You just need to loosen up a bit, Yunie! Ever since Tidus left, you've just been…different, ya know? I just wanted you to get your mind off him."

"That's the whole point of this trip, though! I want to see him!"

"I know, I know… just relax a bit, alright?"

Yuna sighed. She knew she could never win an argument with her cousin; Rikku would never give up. But she did follow her advice and thought about her other guardians.

Kimahri was up on Mt. Gagazet, helping the Ronso rebuild the place they called home for so many years. It turns out Seymour lied when he claimed that all of the Ronso's had threw themselves on him; some (although a sad few) actually remained.

Lulu and Wakka were engaged to be married and living in Bevelle, assisting in rebuilding the city. There were buildings that took on a lot of structural damage when Yuna's guardians attempted to take her away from Seymour, and Lulu and Wakka thought it was their duty to what was left of the temple to help the holy city.

Auron, too, was lost in the Farplane. He had been an unsent for many years, keeping watch over Yuna on her pilgrimage, but he was finally sent after the final battle with Yu Yevon. _What a great man Sir Auron was…_

"Yunie! We're at Luca!" Rikku's squeals of delight allowed the ex-summoner to stop her daydreaming as she saw what lay ahead: Luca, and the rest of the mainland of Spira. Rikku continued, "Isn't this great? After Luca there are just a few roads until we arrive at Guadosalam, ya know? Too bad dad couldn't fly us here, he always has something to do…"

Yuna's mind wandered as Rikku babbled on about how the Al Bhed were busy rebuilding Home. But once she thought about it, she realized that many places were in a state of despair after her Pilgrimage. Kilika. Home. Mt. Gagazet. It seemed that no one was immune to Sin's destruction.

_How does Rikku do it? Always have a smile on her face?_ To be fair, many of the citizens of Spira were happy now that Sin was gone forever, but even during her journey, the young girl was bright and energetic. _There's probably nobody like her in the world._

The cousins arrived in the Luca about an hour later, taking in the culture as they walked through the port. There was another blitzball tournament this weekend, and teams from all over Spira gathered to participate. After an extended visit with the Besaid team, Rikku and Yuna sat in the stands and watched as the Aurochs crushed the Goers in the first round.

The two heroes of Spira treated the team to a welcome round of drinks after their post game exercises, and retired to bed early. They had to wake up early the next morning to reach Guadosalam before nightfall.

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­­­­­­­­As the two girls walked along the mountainous highroads to Seymour's city, not as many dangerous fiends encountered them as they did short time ago. As a result, the cousins were quite bored, and Rikku tried to make small talk.

"How'd you sleep, Yunie?"

"I slept well! But I did have quite a strange dream. There was a man in my dream who was lost. He seemed mysterious and far off, much like our friend Sir Auron once was, but it wasn't quite him. He was taller and had pointed boots… But anyway, I'm sure it was nothing."

The rest of the journey passed with no excitement, and the cousins managed to make it to the far off city of the Guado early in the evening. They booked a room with the innkeeper, and went to sleep after a long day on the road.

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**I hope you guys enjoyed that first chapter!**

**Again, reviews would be awesome, just to let me know how I'm doing. **

**-ajax  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N**

**Sorry for the delay. Like my profile says, I'm getting ready for college and have been super busy with that.**

**Again, thanks to mira ff for beta'ing for me again. She's the best!**

**Thank you to my reviewers, as well. **

**Disclaimer (forgot this first time) : FF7 and FFX are not mine. It's sad, I know. **

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_Where the hell am I? _ Vincent remembered checking out the Lifestream with Rude, a hand on his back, and then just… green, all over.

It was strange. The Lifestream always seemed like a liquid to the tall man, but now that he was in it, he found that he could breathe just as he could when he was walking around Gaia. He couldn't really walk, though; he seemed to float from place to place. Trying to turn around and leave the Lifestream, he realized that he couldn't; the liquid was carrying him away…

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"_Where am I?" The caped man asked Yuna._

"_Sir! You are quite silly, of course you must know that you are in the Farplane. I did send you, after all…" _

"_All I remember is being forced here, but not by my own free will," answered the man in red._

"_But, Sir Auron, you said to continue the sending, just after we defeated Yu Yevon…"_

"…_Auron?"_

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Yuna woke up to the sound of Rikku jumping on the bed. She was bored, as usual, but why at 3 A.M?

"Rikku, sweetie, why are you up and oh so bouncy?" Yuna tried to sound as delicate as she could, but it was the middle of the night, and she was having a familiar dream, one that seemed to intensify as she got closer to the Farplane. Maybe Auron wanted her to know something before she got there…

"Because, Yunie, I can't sleep! You snore!" The young blonde playfully teased her cousin, but the glare on Yuna's face showed she wasn't in the mood for joking at this time. "All right, all right, fine. I was just wondering if I'd ever find someone, ya know? Lulu has Wakka, and you had Tidus… who does Rikku have?"

Yuna's eyes slowly closed at Tidus' name, and her cousin immediately backtracked what she said. "Not that having someone there for you is everything, Yunie…you know? I just feel…left out is all." But Rikku knew that how much she explained, she couldn't change Yuna's feelings of longing for Tidus.

The summoner realized that her cousin felt badly about her mistake, and tried to comfort her. She put her arm around the young girl, who was wearing red Al-Bhed style pajamas. "Don't worry about it, really. Tidus is gone, but that's okay. There are always other people out there, and who's to say one of them isn't for you?" She gave Rikku a tight squeeze, but it didn't seem to have an effect on the girl. She just stared into space.

Yuna realized she could do no more and climbed back into her own bed, being careful to keep her blue night gown unwrinkled. "Good night! Rikku, do get some sleep. We are visiting the Farplane tomorrow, and you need your rest."

The lights were off, but Rikku still thought of what her cousin had said. _"Tidus is gone." Did Yunie really say that? Then why the heck are we making this journey in the first place, if not for him? _ She thought about their plans, and thankfully forgot her own problems before drifting off to sleep.

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Vincent started making out figures as the Lifestream kept taking him further and further from where he fell. To his right, he saw a boy who appeared to be just a bit younger than Cloud talking to an older man. The gentleman wore no shirt, and seemed to be giving the boy a lecture about crying too much. Of course, the kid looked like he was about to cry anyway…

The gunslinger didn't care about what they were talking about, he just wanted to know why he was here. He tried calling out to the pair, but they did not seem to hear him. _Did they fall into the Lifesteam too?_

He saw another man a few minutes later, accompanied by a man that reminded Vincent very much of himself. He too sported a red cloak and spoke like he was an expert at whatever he was doing.

As he neared, Vincent could hear him talking. "Braska, your daughter is coming closer, you should visit."

"No, no. It is not my place, Auron." The one called Braska looked in Vincent's direction, but right by him, as if the man with the gun was not there.

But once Vincent saw Braska's face, his mind immediately flashed. _Lifestream… Farplane… Tidus… Auron… Yuna…Tifa…Nibelheim…Hojo…Cloud… summoners… Rikku…Yuffie. _Names and accompanying images that Vincent had never seen or heard of before came and went before his mind's eye, and the next thing he knew he was thrown facedown onto the floor of a rectangular room, surrounded by the Lifestream on all sides. His cloak was tattered, and Cerberus was loosened from its holster.

"Sir Auron?" A soft voice started to wake him from his dizzied state. He could not recognize it, but the next one definitely sounded familiar.

"Just wake up already, would ya? Gosh, he's so overdramatic."

_That must be Yuffie, _he thought before looking up into the faces of two complete strangers.

"Oh no…" he muttered.

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**Thanks for reading, guys.**

**Again, reviews would be awesome; let me know how I'm doing. Even if it's harsh, just send a PM or whatever.**

**I'll update again as soon as I can!**

**-ajax  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N**

**So I'm at college! I've been super busy recently with classes but I managed to update...sorry to everyone who actually reads these and wanted to read. At least you may be happy now! =)**

**Thanks to llama for the review...this one is a bit longer!**

**Also a big big thanks to Mira ff for being an awesome Beta reader =) =)  
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**Happy reading!**

**Disclaimer: both games aren't mine. *tear***

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_Bzzz…Bzzz…Bzzz_

Yuffie's cell phone vibrated on the bar top as she sat alone at the bar. Shera was tucking Marlene and Denzel into bed after a long day at the Gold Saucer. The kids wanted to ride all the rides, play all the games, and race on chocobos constantly. Even though Yuffie wanted to participate in the fun, her mind kept drifting off. _Where was Vincent? How come I never heard from him? He must be all right…Vinnie is always all right. _

She was so lost in thought thinking about the gunslinger that it took a while for her to register that she was receiving a call. A man with dark glasses appeared as the caller ID, and the ninja raced to pick it up.

"Rude?"

"Oh…yea. Hey Yuffie. How's it going?"

"Where's Vincent? Why haven't I talked to him?"

"Well…um…Reno the idiot over here…"

"Hey!" Yuffie could hear the redhead's voice interrupting Rude on the other end of the line.

"SHUT UP YOU IDIOT. Hey, Yuffs, you still there?"

"Where's Vinnie?"

"Yea…as I was saying, Reno the idiot kind of pushed him into the Lifestream as soon as he got here… and we haven't heard from him since?"

"WHAT?!" Yuffie shrieked so loud that Denzel and Marlene came running into the bar, both wearing expressions of concern.

"Are Cloud and Tifa okay?"

"Go back to bed you two! They are doing great and having a great time on vacation! I'm just talking to an old friend." Yuffie put on her best happy face, and the two children left slowly, glancing over their shoulders at their babysitter.

She growled into the phone. "What the hell do you mean you haven't heard from him since?"

"Umm… just that. Sorry, Yuffs, I have to beat this idiot into a pulp. We'll let you know if anything develops." Rude hung up.

Yuffie set down her phone, stricken with fear. Her normally cheery face turned ashen white, and she could barely move. The young ninja sat frozen in her barstool seat, thinking about how she may never see Vinnie's crimson eyes again, until the clock chimed 11:00 pm, breaking her reverie and prompting her to go to bed.

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­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Vincent looked up into the faces of two young girls who he had never seen before. Both were short, and seemed kind of related. Something in their faces was similar. The brunette carried a staff, long with a round symbol on the top. She wore a long blue dress that came down to her dark shoes, with a white top and a giant yellow bow in the back. She kind of looked like a present waiting to be unwrapped.

Her friend (_maybe a cousin, _Vincent thought), was the one who reminded him of Yuffie, of home. She carried herself in the same happy go lucky kind of way, and had pretty blonde hair up in a messy style above her head. Her goggles were around her neck, on her orange sleeveless vest, which exposed part of her midriff. Her pants were very unfamiliar to Vincent, though, a rainbow of colors sewn together in a weird design.

Vincent got up, extended his hand, and introduced himself. "I'm Vincent Valentine. Where in Gaia are we?"

The girls looked dumbfounded, but the brunette gained her composure and took his hand. "I'm Yuna, and this is my cousin Rikku." _Knew they were related, _thought Vincent. Rikku couldn't stop staring at the man in the cape, though.

"You aren't Auron!" she finally blurted.

_Auron...Rikku…Yuna. All the names were so familiar. Where have I heard them before?_ "No I am not," he answered.

But Yuna had a more pressing question. "You asked where in Gaia we were… I've never heard of there. Is it not in Spira?"

"Of course it isn't, Yunie! We've been all over Spira, trying to beat Sin. Remember? There's nowhere we haven't heard of!"

"You're right Rikku. That still leaves a question of where you are from, sir." She nodded towards the man in the cape. "You are far away from home, I can tell by the way you are dressed. Unless you want to dress like Sir Auron, but no one would dare disgrace his honor by mocking his clothing."

_Auron. That name again. _"If you don't mind me asking, who's Auron? I've never heard of him before, until I came out of the Lifestream."

Yuna looked confused. "He was a great hero in this land's history. But what you came from, that wasn't a stream. It's called the Farplane, where souls are sent after death."

Rikku piped up now, in an annoying voice that reminded Vincent a lot of the young ninja at home. "Well let's DO something, instead of just sitting here! You're in a faraway place, we get that whatever. This place gives me the creeps!" She sprinted out of the Farplane and down the steps, towards Guadosalam.

"How do you deal with her?" Vincent asked Yuna.

She looked at him inquisitively, as if he were asking her how to breathe. "You're already annoyed with her? You've known her for 15 minutes, sir. Please be patient."

"No no! I know someone at home who is very much like her, the way she speaks. The way she acts. She just ticks me off a lot is all."

"Give her a chance. They are young and happy. There's nothing wrong with that. They see the world from a different point of view. Maybe you could be a bit more receptive, sir."

"I guess…" Vincent trailed off, lost in thought. _Yuffie? Have I ever even given her a chance? She's always been annoying, yes, but she deserves a chance like everyone else. But it's _Yuffie._ She's always so talkative. And touchy. Maybe she does deserve more, though. She does like me an awful lot. Why can't I give her a chance? She's touchy. I can't deal with her. End of story. _

He pondered the Yuffie situation over and over in his head until he got back to the inn where Yuna and Rikku were staying, still not reaching a conclusion. He checked into a room next to theirs, bid them good night, and drifted off to sleep.

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**A/N**

**Any thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Please review and let me know how good or bad I'm doing or how much I suck because I don't update. Or send a PM..those work as well.**

**Thanks guys! Hope you enjoy so far.**

**-ajax  
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